Silent Sunday

Coffee and Walnut Cupcakes - UK Coffee Week

I love coffee and when I saw that it was UK Coffee Week this week I knew I had to incorporate it into a bake.

UK Coffee Week is a fund raising initiative where coffee shops, companies and drinkers join together to celebrate the British coffee culture. All the money that is raised during UK Coffee Week will go to Project Waterfall which is a project which will bring clean, fresh water to the coffee growing communities.

Whenever I think of coffee cake, I think of walnuts. This is not a cake that I make very often and I do not know why. It is such a lovely, deliciously rich cake that any coffee lover will love. This time I have decided to make Coffee and Walnut Cupcakes instead of my usual large cake.

This is what I did...

How Does Your Garden Grow? Week 18

This last week we have seen all sorts of weather. It has be gloriously sunny and hot one day then cold and wet the next. We have even had a couple of frosty mornings!

The garden certainly did need the rain and I love the seeing the plants glistening with water droplets. Plus it gave me the perfect excuse to grab my camera and capture their beauty.

Our garden is full of colour from the various wallflowers that the hubby planted last year. We are amazed by the size of some of them, they are doing so well. The Allium Purple Sensations are in bud and as these are a favourite I cannot wait to see them open up! Last year we bought a couple of reduced Clematis to grow up the front of the house. This year one is still small but the other one is covered in buds and is starting to open. Many of the plants in our garden are ones that we bought from the reduced section and we have shown that with a little TLC these plants can thrive.

This is how our garden has grown this week...

Stewed Homegrown Rhubarb

We have been delighted to see that our rhubarb has returned in the garden and it is already big! It seems to have shot up over the last two weeks. I can see us having a lot of rhubarb over the next few months.

Rhubarb is a lovely versatile vegetable, yes it is a vegetable, until recently I thought that it was a fruit. Rhubarb can be used in a variety of desserts from crumbles to pies, from cakes to jams. With it returning to the garden so early it is always one of the first things that we get to harvest.

This is the second harvest that we have had so far this year. Last time I made a rhubarb and strawberry crumble which unfortunately did not last long enough for me to take a picture, so this will be a recipe that I will be sharing in the future.

Today I thought that I would share with you the base of all my rhubarb recipes.

My Stewed Rhubarb.

With the stewed rhubarb you can use it is a variety of recipes. I have got a few rhubarb based recipes planned and I will be referring back to this recipe.

Mushroom, Black Pepper and Spring Onion Pasta - Family Favourites

I love how cream cheese can transform a recipe and add so much flavour in such an easy way.

What is even better is the different flavours that companies are now adding to the product. Before I go on I want to say that this recipe is in no way sponsored by any brand, I just wanted to share how great they are for adding to pasta dishes!

In this recipe I have used Philadelphia's light cream cheese with spring onion and black pepper. As soon as I saw it I knew that it would be perfect for a mushroom sauce. As you will know I am all for quick and easy meals and this ticks all of the boxes!

It is quick, easy, family friendly and full of flavour.

This is what I did...

Plum Swirl Cake

I recently found a jar of plum jam that needed using. We are not big jam eaters, I tend to buy jam when I need it for a bake or pudding. So when I found a jar it got me thinking about a different way to use it.

That is how I created this recipe. Not only is it a great way to use up any leftover jam, but also a great way to revamp a classic Victoria sponge.

This is what I did...